Forcible Displacement

As per 2020 statistical reporting in the Americas, the total population of concern is 18,357,000, this includes:

• Total Refugees, Asylum-seekers & Venezuelan Displaced Abroad: 6,728,000
  
• Total Internally Displaced Persons 8,571,000
• Total Statelessness 4,000
• Total Other of Concerns 3,052,000

Solutions

• Total Returned Refugees 0
• Total Returned IDP 0
• Total Resettlement 19,000
• Total Naturalisation 5,000

Figure 1: | Population of Concern in 2020 in the Americas

What displacement?

Compared to the previous year, the population groups with increases were the returned IDPs with 22 per cent and the number of internally displaced persons increased by 12 per cent. The number of refugees and asylum-seekers both reduced slightly by 4 per cent respectively. The largest decrease was within the refugee returnee category with 75 per cent.

Figure 5: | Largest Countries of Asylum

Considering together Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Venezuelan Displaced Abroad, Colombia is the first country with more population, especially for the presence of Venezuelan Displaced Abroad (1,729,537). United States of America has the second largest host has a big component of Refugees (340,844) and Asylum Seekers (997,998). The third country, Peru has a great component of Venezuelan Displaced Abroad (515,039).

The evolution in the last 20 years shows a significant increased in Internally Displaced Persons, especially in Colombia (8,252,788 over 8,571,000).

Figure 6: | Other Displacement

Colombia IDP are the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) is the 17 per cent of world’s IDP (8,253,000 over 48,557,439). This is the official figure. This is a historical and cumulative figure of IDPs is being used nowadays. Maybe a revision of the IDPs in Colombia can change this figure. Colombia OOC is the sum of Other persons of concern (500,000) and Host Community (787,450). Normally, Other persons of concern are people out of their country, in the special case of Colombia Other persons of concern are mostly returnee Colombians from Venezuela.

Figure 7: | Proportion of the population who are refugees, by country of origin (SDG Indicator 10.7.4)

What profiles?

Figure 8: | Demographic breakdown

Often demographic data are not available in Americas. Available demographic data for persons of concern in the region for 2020 show a balance between sex. Of the total population, more than 30 per cent are children below the age of 18 and around the 5 per cent are elderly 60 years and above. More than 35 per cent are between 18-59 years.

Impact of Covid-19, a dramatic drop of solutions

Since the first case of COVID-19 was recorded in December 2019, more than 170 million people worldwide have contracted the virus. The Americas is among the most affected regions

Durable solutions include voluntary repatriation, resettlement to a third country, local integration, naturalization and return to place of origin prior to displacement (for IDPs). However, a growing number of displaced populations have limited opportunities for a durable solution. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated these challenges.

Costa Rica. UNHCR expands cash assistance programme during COVID-19 crisis

The partial or full closure of borders, along with more general restrictions on movement aimed at limiting the pandemic’s spread, has dramatically impacted opportunities for displaced people to return to their home countries or resettle to other countries.

Figure 9: | Trends for Solution

The Resettlement solution decreased in the last 5 years.

Refugee Status Determination Processing in the Region

Figure 10: | Asylum Application in 2020

Looking at the decision process, we can see that the level of recognition varies widely depending on the country of Asylum

Figure 11: | Asylum Decision in 2020

Venezuela Situation

As the second-largest displacement crisis in the world, refugees and migrants from Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) now total 5.7 million globally, of which more than 80 percent are hosted by countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. To date, more than 171,000 have been recognized as refugees and over 850,000 asylum claims have also been lodged worldwide. Across the region, just under 2.7 million have been granted some form of residency or regular stay permit.

Inside Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), UNHCR protects and assists refugees and Venezuelan nationals. The latter is done in the framework of the Humanitarian Response Plan which targets 4.5 million persons in need. Primarily through the protection cluster and the cluster responsible for shelter, energy and non-food items, UNHCR’s coordination and operational efforts support people on-the-move, at risk of displacement, host communities, as well as limited numbers of spontaneous returns, especially in border areas and along key population movement routes.

El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala & Mexico

Glossary of UNHCR Statistical Concept

UNHCR Population Statistics Databasehttps://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/ contains data about UNHCR’s populations of concern from the year 1951 up to 2014 as well as their general composition by location of residence or origin, their status, their evolution over time. Ths includes different population type and solution events

• Refugees include individuals recognized under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees; its 1967 Protocol; the 1969 OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa; those recognised in accordance with the UNHCR Statute; individuals granted complementary forms of protection; or those enjoying temporary protection. Since 2007, the refugee population also includes people in a refugee-like situation. Refugees recognized by the Government and/or UNHCR include:

  • 1. persons recognized as refugees by Governments having ratified the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and/or its 1967 Protocol;
  • 2. persons recognized as refugees under the 1969 Organization of African Unity (OAU) Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa;
       
  • 3. those recognized in accordance with the principles enshrined in the Cartagena Declaration;
       
  • 4. persons recognized by UNHCR as refugees in accordance with its Statute (otherwise referred to as “mandate” refugees);
       
  • 5. those who have been granted a complementary form of protection (i.e. non-Convention);
       
  • 6. persons who have been granted temporary protection on a group basis; Persons in a refugee-like situation refer to those outside their territory of origin who face protection risks similar to those of refugees, but who, for practical or other reasons, have not been formally recognized or issued documentation to that effect.

• Asylum-seekers are individuals who have sought international protection and whose claims for refugee status have not yet been determined, irrespective of when they may have been lodged.

• Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are people or groups of individuals who have been forced to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of, or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalised violence, violations of human rights, or natural or man-made disasters, and who have not crossed an international border. For the purposes of UNHCR’s statistics, this population only includes conflict-generated IDPs to whom the Office extends protection and/or assistance. Since 2007, the IDP population also includes people in an IDP-like situation. For global IDP estimates, see www.internal-displacement.orghttp://www.internal-displacement.org.

• Returned refugees are former refugees who have returned to their country of origin spontaneously or in an organised fashion but are yet to be fully integrated. Such return would normally only take place in conditions of safety and dignity.

• Returned IDPs refer to those IDPs who were beneficiaries of UNHCR’s protection and assistance activities and who returned to their areas of origin or habitual residence during the year.

• Stateless persons are defined under international law as persons who are not considered as nationals by any State under the operation of its law. In other words, they do not possess the nationality of any State. UNHCR statistics refer to persons who fall under the agency’s statelessness mandate because they are stateless according to this international definition, but data from some countries may also include persons with undetermined nationality.

• Others of concern refers to individuals who do not necessarily fall directly into any of the groups above, but to whom UNHCR extends its protection and/or assistance services, based on humanitarian or other special grounds.

• Venezuelan Displaced Abroad: People displaced across borders. According to interviews and protection monitoring exercises conducted by UNHCR and partners, Venezuelans claim that they are leaving the country for a variety of reasons, including persecution on account of their individual profiles, insecurity and violence, lack of access to food, medicine and essential services, as well as loss of income as a result of the current human rights, political and socioeconomic situation in Venezuela. Based on these reports, as well as reliable information in the public domain from a wide range of sources about the situation in Venezuela, UNHCR considers that for a number of profiles, international protection considerations are likely to arise under the 1951 Convention/1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees depending on the circumstances of the individual case. While individual circumstances and reasons for departure from Venezuela vary, UNHCR considers that the majority of Venezuelan nationals, or stateless persons who were habitually resident in Venezuela, are in need of international protection under the criteria contained in the Cartagena Declaration on the basis of threats to their lives, security or freedom resulting from the events that are currently seriously disturbing public order in Venezuela.

Every year, UNHCR publish its Population Statistics Reference. it includes detailed statistics from each country on Refugee Status Determination. The data set contains not only reference by country of asylum and country of origin but also:

• Type of procedure: RSD conducted by UNHCR (U), the Government (G), or Jointly (J) by UNHCR and the Government.
  
• Applications refer to “new” applications (N), “re-opened/repeat” applications (R) and/or “appeal” applications (A).
  
• Applications refer to number of persons (P) or number of cases (C). (Preference: PERSONS)
  
• Decisions refer to first instance (FI), appeal/administrative review (AR), judicial review (JR), New applications (NA), Repeat/reopened applications (RA), US Citizenship and Immigration Services (IN), US Executive Office of Immigration Review (EO), Subsidiary protection (SP), First instance and appeal (FA) and/or Temporary asylum (TA).

Country Highlights for Top 10 Countries

Colombia

Figure 12: | Evolution over time of the different Population of Concern in Colombia

No solutions recorded in Colombia

Venezuela

Figure 13: | Evolution over time of the different Population of Concern in Venezuela

Figure 14: | Solutions in Venezuela

United States of America

Figure 15: | Evolution over time of the different Population of Concern in United States of America

Figure 16: | Solutions in United States of America

Peru

Figure 17: | Evolution over time of the different Population of Concern in Peru

Figure 18: | Solutions in Peru

Ecuador

Figure 19: | Evolution over time of the different Population of Concern in Ecuador

Figure 20: | Solutions in Ecuador

Chile

Figure 21: | Evolution over time of the different Population of Concern in Chile

Figure 22: | Solutions in Chile

Brazil

Figure 23: | Evolution over time of the different Population of Concern in Brazil

Figure 24: | Solutions in Brazil

Mexico

Figure 25: | Evolution over time of the different Population of Concern in Mexico

Figure 26: | Solutions in Mexico

Canada

Figure 27: | Evolution over time of the different Population of Concern in Canada

Figure 28: | Solutions in Canada

Argentina

Figure 29: | Evolution over time of the different Population of Concern in Argentina

Figure 30: | Solutions in Argentina

Panama

Figure 31: | Evolution over time of the different Population of Concern in Panama

Figure 32: | Solutions